Confessions from the fuckwits

Stredda said:
Father, it's been a while since my last confession.

On Friday, I went to install new brake pads in the Stumpy ready for the "Railton Express" XC race on Saturday.
Had a bit of trouble getting the pistons to stay fully retracted to fit the new pads, so I had them in and out a few times. Anyway, I got them in without any disk rubbing, bedded them in on the street out the front of my place and all was good for tomorrow's race.

Race day and I set off in a good position in C grade and settled in for the 40km loop. Halfway around on a loose descent I could hear a grinding noise coming from the rear of my bike. I pulled up at the bottom and found that one of my brake pads had started working its way down between the calliper and the disk, but the retention pin was still in place. I worked out, that somehow, I managed to install the pads too far down in the calliper and the retention pin was on top of the pads. No idea how they stayed in there so long, but I had to fix it trail side, and I then found out that the two multitools that I carry both don't have an Allen key small enough to fit the retention pin. I then realised that all I could do is remove the rear wheel, get the pads out and stick them in my pocket and continue the race with no rear brakes. So that's what I did.

Had a couple of sketchy moments trying to pull up on the front brakes alone but it wasn't too bad. The hardest thing was fighting the muscle memory to not pull the rear brakes on. Lost about 7min and one definite position and another one to two possible positions to the couple that I was riding with before the issue.

Lesson: Need my old man's glasses when working on the bike from now on.
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luckily that wasn't a steep track or it would have been mega sketch with only a front brake. !
 
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PJO said:
Top left piston in that photo looks like it's coming out on an angle. Or is that just a trick of the light?
Multi-tool without a 2/2.5/3mm Allen key? Off to the Black Friday Sales you go...
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I haven't even looked at it yet. I just dumped the bike back in the shed in disgust and left it.
The top pistons would have come out a bit from a bit of a panic moment where I involuntarily grabbed a tiny bit of rear brake and then fortunately remembered to stop.
Mattyp said:
You also don't seem to have the small retainer clip that goes on the end of the pin to stop it falling out
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Who needs them when you don't even put the pin through the pads.🤷‍♂️

teK-- said:
luckily that wasn't a steep track or it would have been mega sketch with only a front brake. !
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Yeah, there were only three reasonable descents left to do, and the front brake was enough, not comfortably enough, but I didn't die. I lost a bit of time there too as I couldn't go as hard on the downs as I would have liked.
 
Stredda said:
one of my brake pads had started working its way down between the calliper and the disk, but the retention pin was still in place. I worked out, that somehow, I managed to install the pads too far down in the calliper and the retention pin was on top of the pads.
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You're not alone.
 
pink poodle said:
Matches give the bong smoke a wierd taste.
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rockmoose said:
You need to hold the match until all the matchhead sulphur has dissipated before moving on to the next step.
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Nobody got time for that. There's bongs to rip!


Slowman said:
I have also heard that if you like weird tastes, you drink the bong water after a session. Is there nothing more putrid?
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No way! To drink the bong water is a privilege bestowed upon only the righteous bong lords.
 
Yesterday I copied 179 pump installation photos from my site job last week.

Straight after that tried taking some photos of the pump I'm currently working on. But phone storage was full. So I delete some random photos. Winner.


Today I open up the folder (where I copied the photos) to check something. No photos. Fuck, where did I save them?!

Turns out I highlighted 179 photos on my phone, then promptly copied them back on my phone. That's where my storage went.
 
As per my bargain buys post, I received my light last night and looking at YouTube it’s a 5 minute install, um nope. It says to take out the rubber port and fish around near the the head tube for the plug, pull it out and plug it in and you’re done, um nope. Couldn’t find the plug, pull out the port from the other side and fished around from there, still no luck, okay let’s take shit apart and go from there. So I pull out the lock that holds the battery in place and find the wire, no way was I going to find that, plug everything in then try to fit the lock back into place, for some reason it wasn’t going into after a bit of screwing around I get it into place. Okay time to see how bright this thing is, um WTF no power, not just to the light but the whole bike, mmmmm I think I know what happened, pull at the wire from power switch and yep it’s come apart slightly. Okay now gently pull the wire so it doesn’t jam in the frame and come out completely, um nope, time to pull it apart again and plug it back in, this time I tested it before putting it back together and it works. This everything goes back together easily and smoothly even works when I turned it back on, now I have to charge the bike, my taillight and the bikes power button has the light switch built in already.

TLDR: I hate staged YouTube videos, not a two minute job, especially when you accidentally disconnect the power then have to pull it apart and do it again, yet again making small jobs hard.
 
It's been a while, but a decent confession to make this evening.

For those of you who followed by Ali Gravel Dropbar Build, one of my biggest issues with the LTWOO GRT12 Groupset, was that the derailleur's last cable run around it's plastic pulley/guide wasn't captive like in every derailleur in recent history. This would manifest in the cable jumping off as the derailleur moved when I was in the harder gears and dropping off medium gutters, or popping it off waterbars (finally confident enough in the drops to do that silly stuff). Meaning immediate top gearing.

I'd inspected the area many times (MANY), with the plan to drill a hole through the plastic to put a cable tie through and keep it all captive.

Atfer a group gravel ride this weekend and a few more drops, I finally committed to drilling it. So, wheel out, chain off. head torch on in my not superbly lit shed at night. 1.5mm drill bit to start very small and work up, so that I didn't totally COFW and rip it apart.

Small hole done, success! Inspecting the angle of the pilot hole, all good. But wait, what's that bit of chaff caught up in... Right on the underside of the cable channel...

Fark... You gotta be kdding me...

Yep, there was a bridge on the guide the whole friggen time. Somehow I'd missed it during install, and during repeated musings. Did I mention how good the lighting is in the shed at night for underneath parts?

Heatshrink cable crimp off, cable undone, rethreaded through the channel UNDER the bridge this time, all nipped up. Thankfully the pilot hole was very small, so won't be an issue moving forward. Will fill with some superglue on a another night...

But still, yep, this is a worthy COFW...
 
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We're travelling to Japan this year and I thought I'd make an effort and learn some phrases.

I met my wife for lunch and we decided to get sushi/udon.

Enthusiastically I asked "Kōra futatsu onegaishimasu". The waitress looked blankly at me and replied "Sorry I don't speak Japanese, I'm Korean".

FFS....
 
Jabubu said:
We're travelling to Japan this year and I thought I'd make an effort and learn some phrases.

I met my wife for lunch and we decided to get sushi/udon.

Enthusiastically I asked "Kōra futatsu onegaishimasu". The waitress looked blankly at me and replied "Sorry I don't speak Japanese, I'm Korean".

FFS....
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Korean does sound a bit like wobbly Japanese :)

maybe all you need is "Toriaezu, biiru de"?
 
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